Gift packaging: 5 ways to jazz up your package

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There’s a lot in this blog about the best way of packing your boxes and parcels to ensure that your goods arrive with your customer safely, no matter how fragile, how oddly shaped or cumbersome, or how hazardous the contents. And that’s how it should be, because there’s no better way to lose customers than to deliver their purchases in a broken, damaged or dangerous condition.

If you’re dispatching engine parts, electronics or chemicals, that’s probably good enough. But there are many items which are ordered for sheer pleasure, which gives you the opportunity to wow your customer, not just with a safe and timely delivery, but also by giving them something a little extra.

In other words, packaging doesn’t have to be merely functional; it can be the thing that makes the whole transaction most memorable for the customer. Here are just a few ideas of ways you can jazz up your package and make it a special delivery in every way.

1 Coloured & custom boxes
These days, there are literally hundreds of different sizes of cardboard boxes available off the shelf from online packaging suppliers. They can be delivered quickly – often on the next working day – and usually represent outstanding value. All that makes them an understandably popular choice.

But there’s no escaping the fact that your average cardboard box is something of a dull brown colour. No jazz there.

But you don’t need to be limited to what’s easily available. Many packaging suppliers give you the opportunity to design your own bespoke cardboard boxes; that could mean having them made to a precise size perfect for your product, but it could also mean adding some print or colour.

In both cases you’re likely to be looking at an initial minimum order of about 500 – there’s an immediate cost for the plates needed to do the printing which would make the whole enterprise prohibitively expensive otherwise (based on the price per box).

But if that’s a quantity you can use, then it opens up all kinds of possibilities for you to really make your parcel stand out from the crowd. Whether you want to add crazy designs, one big and bold colour or just your logo, this is an easy and surprisingly inexpensive way of ensuring your package gets noticed. Don’t forget, though, that the more colours you use, the more you’ll have to pay – each one needs its own separate plate (although that should be a maximum of four – all colours are made up from combining Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black (CYMK) in different amounts).

2 Coloured mailing bags
As with boxes, your standard, and usually cheapest, polythene mailing bag is likely to be supplied in an uninspiring colour, in this case grey. But don’t despair, because if you’re prepared to pay a little more for something with a little more pizzazz, then there are plenty of options you can turn to, and in this case without going to the lengths of getting them custom made or committing to a substantial minimum order.

Orange, green, blue, red, purple, yellow and pink mailing bags are all readily available, in a variety of sizes and in pack quantities of as few as 100, making them not only a colourful option, but a more than affordable one as well.

And with that kind of variety in those kind of quantities, you can also mix it up a bit so that no one knows just which colour they’re going to get next.

3 Coloured packing tape
Even if you’ve decided that a coloured or custom box isn’t the right thing for you – or you’re not yet in a position to commit to that 500-box minimum order – then why not add that extra colour with a bit of packing tape instead? As with the boxes, you can do that by getting your tape custom printed with your logo or special message; also as with boxes, if you want to go down the custom route, you’re likely to have to commit to a minimum order, in this case 72 rolls.

Alternatively, it’s easy to get vinyl tape in a variety of colours so that all you have to do is fold your box as usual and add your dash of colour as you seal it.

4 Ribbons
You do it with your Christmas presents, so why not with your parcels? Well, it probably depends on how much you trust whoever’s going to be making the delivery. If you’re confident that your parcel will get treated well from the moment you dispatch it to the moment it arrives with your customer, this is, as always, a great way of making the opening of a parcel very special.

5 Shredded & coloured tissue
So far, we’ve concentrated almost exclusively on making the outside of the parcel look good, but what about adding a final surprise for when your customer gets into the actual package? You can protect your product with bubble wrap, or fill any spare space with packing peanuts, but do either of those really make a parcel special? Tissue paper, on the other hand, used properly, does. First of all, you want to use what is known as machine finished tissue – that’s the ultra soft variety. Then you want to pick the right colour – options like cerise, burgundy, pale blue and bottle green being among the many available online. The final touch is getting it shredded.

Sarah Hickson

With more than seven years experience as a member of the Davpack sales team, there are few who know more about the range of packaging materials we sell than Sarah. She recently left the company to become a full-time mother, but still maintains regular contact with her former colleagues. As well as sharing her own accumulated wisdom and experience on the blog, Sarah is looking forward to passing on stories from the front line of packaging sales.
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